by Dave Williams | Sep 12, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) awarded a record 76,571 degrees during the last fiscal year, up 1.8% over fiscal 2023.
The number of degrees the system’s 26 institutions have awarded has risen by 39.6% since 2011, when the USG joined Complete College America, a program that prioritizes degree completion. During that same period, enrollment increased by 8.3%, meaning the rate of awarding degrees has far surpassed enrollment growth.
“USG and our 26 public colleges and universities take pride in making sure students complete their degrees, and today you’re seeing the impact of that work in communities across Georgia,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Thursday.
“We’re building momentum toward being the best public university system in the nation and continuing to help increase the state’s economic development and families’ long-term prosperity.”
The university system awarded 51,543 undergraduate degrees in fiscal 2024, a 1.6% increase over the previous fiscal year. Another 25,028 graduate and professional degrees awarded in the last fiscal year was up 2.1% over fiscal 2023.
Besides Complete College America, the university system more recently has undertaken other initiatives aimed at promoting higher education and degree completion. For example, Georgia Degrees Pay, a website launched in 2022, provides data on student success, college costs, affordability, and earning potential.
According to a recent study, USG graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree will earn over $1.4 million more during their lifetimes than they would have without their college degree. Graduate and professional degrees add to those average career earnings.
by Dave Williams | Sep 12, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Opponents of a proposal by Georgia Power to add more biomass to the utility’s electrical generating portfolio argued Thursday the plan is both unreliable and too expensive.
Georgia Power is seeking approval from the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to buy about 80 megawatts of electricity from three plants in South Georgia that burn wood chips from waste generated by logging operations.
Most of that power – 70 megawatts – would come through a 30-year power-purchasing agreement (PPA) with Altamaha Green Energy LLC, which operates a mill in Wayne County. Two other 10-year PPAs with International Paper Co. would produce the rest of the biomass from mills in Port Wentworth and Macon County.
The power the projects would generate would be far more expensive for Georgia Power customers than other alternatives, Aradhana Chandra, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center, told commissioners Thursday.
“If the Altamaha PPA is approved, customers will be paying for more than three times the value of energy they’re receiving,” said Chandra, whose firm represents Georgia Interfaith Power and Light in the case before the PSC.
But Robert Highsmith, a lawyer representing Georgia Power, said the projects’ benefits to the South Georgia economy would outweigh the costs. He noted that when the PSC ordered Georgia Power two years ago to pursue biomass as part of a diverse portfolio of energy supply sources, the commission specifically stated it wanted to create jobs in rural South Georgia by promoting the state’s forestry industry.
“Cost isn’t the only appropriate consideration here,” Highsmith said.
Commissioner Tim Echols said “slash” debris left over from logging operations would go to waste if it isn’t converted into biomass fuel.
“I know we’re paying more for this,” he said. “But without it, this stuff gets burned right there in those communities without the benefit of scrubbers or, worse, it rots on the ground.”
Commission Chairman Jason Shaw said 40% to 50% more trees are planted each year in Georgia than are harvested, yielding an oversupply that is depressing prices. A state Senate study committee has begun meeting to explore ways to put that timber to use.
“They’re looking at how to create new markets for that wood,” Shaw said.
Chandra also maintained that using biomass as a source for generating electricity is less reliable than other sources of energy, citing Winter Storm Elliott as an example. At a previous hearing, she said 267 of 303 megawatts of power produced from biomass were unavailable when the storm hit on Christmas Eve 2022 with record-low temperatures.
But Highsmith said a 60% reliability requirement is built into the PPA contracts.
“They have a number of robust incentives to keep their generating facilities online,” he said.
During a public comment period, critics of the projects also objected to their financial impact on Georgia Power customers.
The commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff has recommended that the PSC certify the three biomass projects based both on the economic benefits to the forestry industry and the benefits of diversifying Georgia Power’s energy generation mix. The commission will vote on the plan next week.
by Dave Williams | Sep 12, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled State Election Board is now being challenged from both sides of the aisle.
A Georgia-based advocacy group headed by former Republican state Rep. Scot Turner filed suit in Fulton County Wednesday seeking to block rules changes three of the five board members approved in recent weeks allowing local election officials to delay certification of election results if they suspect fraud.
The lawsuit, filed by Eternal Vigilance Action, argues the board violated a state law requiring mandatory certification of election results at the local level, overstepping its legal authority.
“Georgia’s laws written and approved by elected legislators and signed by a governor spell out how to conduct our election, and our state constitution does not allow rules promulgated by unelected appointees on the State Election Board to supersede our laws,” said Turner, the group’s president and CEO.
“With this lawsuit, we look to reestablish the proper role of the State Election Board to promote consistency, accuracy and proper access across 159 different county election boards, but on a broader scale, we’re looking to affirm the separation of powers required by the state constitution. The legislative branch writes the rules; the executive branch carries them out as written.”
Turner is listed separately as a plaintiff in the suit, along with his group and James Hall, an election board member in Chatham County.
The Republican lawsuit comes after a suit the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia filed late last month posing similar arguments. The Democratic suit accuses the three board members of laying the groundwork for delays in certification of election results that could help former President Donald Trump capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes even if he doesn’t prevail at the ballot box.
The three board members have defended their votes as striking a blow for election integrity.
by Dave Williams | Sep 12, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Two Fulton County judges have disqualified independent Cornel West and socialist Claudia De la Cruz from Georgia’s presidential ballot, narrowing the field of qualified candidates in the Peach State to four.
In decisions handed down Wednesday, the judges ruled that electors for West and De la Cruz improperly filed nominating petitions for their candidates. The ruling reverses a decision by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger late last month.
However, the names of West and De la Cruz still will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot because it’s too late to remove them.
“The deadline to send for ballots for overseas and military voters is days away,” Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. wrote in the West case. “Given the importance of the 2024 presidential election, the critical importance of voter confidence in elections, and the importance of consistency in ballots … this court ORDERS the secretary of state to post notices complying with the language of this order … and at every polling location to alert all Georgia voters that Dr. Cornel West is not a valid candidate.”
Raffensperger’s Aug. 29 decision permitted six candidates to appear on Georgia’s presidential ballot: West, De la Cruz, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
The Democratic Party of Georgia appealed the secretary’s ruling, citing an earlier decision by an administrative law judge taking West and De la Cruz off the ballot.
A poll Quinnipiac University released this week showed West and De la Cruz each with 1% of the Georgia vote. With both running to the left of Harris, Democrats were concerned they could siphon off votes from the vice president in what promises to be a close contest for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
by Dave Williams | Sep 11, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Civil and voting rights groups have filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit challenging two rules changes the State Election Board’s Republican majority adopted in recent weeks.
The ACLU of Georgia, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law argue the changes threaten to upend Georgia’s longstanding mandatory election certification rules and disenfranchise Georgia voters.
The three Republicans on the five-member board approved rules changes allowing local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results if they suspect election fraud as well as “examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”
The lawsuit, filed late last month by the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, maintains state law requires local election officials to certify election results..
“Democracy is not strengthened by putting certification and the right to vote at risk,” said Poy Winichakul, senior staff attorney for democracy and voting rights with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “These regulations could confuse and delay the final certification of election results – all of which are direct threats to the voting rights of Georgians.”
“County election boards have a clear duty under Georgia law to faithfully report and timely certify their election returns,” added Sophia Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The State Election Board’s last-minute rules changes inject uncertainty and confusion into certification and threaten the fundamental right to vote.”
The lawsuit contends Republicans could use the new rules so close to the November elections to cast doubt on Georgia’s election results, potentially setting the stage for former President Donald Trump to be declared the winner of the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes, even if Vice President Kamala Harris has won more votes.
Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon has called the changes “common-sense rules” aimed at promoting election integrity.
